Editing Juan Bautista de Anza (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Lake Merced 71 (8375417014).jpg|thumb|left|[[Equestrian statue]] of Anza at [[Lake Merced]], [[San Francisco]], [[California]]]]
Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto was born in [[Fronteras]], [[New Navarre]], [[New Spain]] (today [[Sonora]], [[Mexico]]) in 1736 (near [[Arizpe]]), most probably at Cuquiarachi, Sonora,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kessell |first=John L. |date=2013 |title=Miera y Pacheco: A Renaissance Spaniard in Eighteenth-Century New Mexico |location=Norman, Oklahoma |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |page=155 |isbn=978-0-8061-4377-4}}</ref> but possibly at the Presidio of Fronteras.

His family was a part of the military leadership in [[New Spain|New Spain (''Nueva España'')]], as his father and maternal grandfather, Captain Antonio Bezerra Nieto, had both served Spain, their families living on the frontier of Nueva Navarra. He was the son of [[Juan Bautista de Anza&nbsp;I]]. It is traditionally thought that he may have been educated at the College of San Ildefonso in [[Mexico City]], and later at the military academy there.<ref>{{cite book |last=Garate |first=Donald T. |date=2003 |title=Juan Bautista de Anza: Basque Explorer in the New World, 1693–1740 |url=https://archive.org/details/juanbautistadean00gara |url-access=limited |page=[https://archive.org/details/juanbautistadean00gara/page/n253 229]|publisher=University of Nevada Press |isbn=9780874175059 }}</ref> In 1752 he enlisted in the army at the Presidio of Fronteras. He advanced rapidly and had become a [[Captain (OF-2)|captain]] by 1760. He married in 1761. His wife was Ana María Pérez Serrano (b. January 1744/45, d. date unknown), the daughter of Spanish mine owner Francisco Pérez Serrano. They had no children. His military duties mainly consisted of hostile forays against [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], such as the [[Apache]], during the course of which he explored much of what is now [[Arizona]].